Ms Meir said it will be difficult not being able to hug family and friends, after seven months off the planet. She anticipates feeling even more isolated on Earth than in space.

“We’re so busy with so many other amazing pursuits and we have this incredible vantage point of the Earth below, that we don’t really feel as much of that isolation,” she said.

“So we’ll see how it goes and how I adjust. But it will, of course, be wonderful to see some family and friends, at least virtually and from a distance for now.”

Mr Morgan flew to the space station last July, and Ms Meir last September. They will return in a Soyuz capsule with Russian Oleg Skripochka, landing in Kazakhstan. Their departure will leave three astronauts, who arrived on Thursday, on board.

The three will return exactly 50 years after the Apollo 13 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific. An oxygen tank explosion aborted the moon-landing mission.

“Once again, now there’s a crisis and the crisis is on Earth,” Mr Morgan said.

Lunchtime News Wrap

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